Lives Between the Dimensions

                                                                            Robert Nathaniel Ragan; circa 1978 Robert Nathaniel Ragan was born 100 years ago to the day at the time of this posting, February 19, 1914 near the small town of Toone in Hardeman County, Tennessee.   He was the first born of nine children to Jacob William Ragan and Lizzie Ann Jackson Ragan.   They in turn were descendants of Ragan and Jackson clans that had been in Hardeman County on lands near present day Chickasaw State Park since before 1830.   His Grandfather, Nathaniel “Thannie” Francis Ragan was a well-known farmer, ran...

When Hilda Lorraine Dees McCafferty presented me with the photograph of Blanche Moore with the children of the Moore Community I was taken back with a longing, a wistfulness, and nostalgia for a time I hadn't even experienced.  My eyes were not just riveted on the sheer happiness radiating from the face of my mother at approximately four years of age, but of the other children in the company of Blanche.  And in Blanche, herself.  It is easy to see the love there, each for the other, and that Blanche's care of the children that day was a labor of love.  Happy Times in Old Jibby.  Photo circa 1924 in the Moore Community of Wayne, County, Missouri near Rucker/Ojibway.  My uncle Clarence Madison (Bud) Wilson believes this photo was taken at the homestead of Daniel and Susan Moore, my Great-Grandparents.  The young lady in the photograph, center, is the author of "Momma's Apron", Blanche Moore.  The children are, Back row, L-R: Wilbur Eugene Dee...

We were living in St. Louis, Missouri in the small brick apartment complex at 2621 South Fourth Street in the early spring of 1951, walking distance from my Father’s place of employment at International Car and Foundry.   I was not yet quite 5 years old when I first remember my uncle Herb.   But, meeting him that day left an impression and etched a scene into my impressionable brain that I still carry with me in the graying years of my own journey between the dimensions. Properly, I met my mother’s brother, Herbert Daniel Wilson on that day.   I was tagging along behind Mother while she was doing the usual chores of the household when we both perked up at a knock on the door.   She was not expecting or prepared for who was on the other side of that portal, as evidenced by the emotion that sprang forth from her like spontaneous joy released finally from an airtight time capsule.   She cried and shook and threw her arms around the slight figure of the man ...

We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youths, our hearts were touched by fire."          - Oliver Wendell Holmes, on the young soldiers of the Civil War John W. Moore and Eliza (Elizabeth) Berry Moore were the original hardy souls, leaving the relative tame life of West Tennessee, to enter into the fledgling state of Missouri to the site of what would come to be known as the "Moore Community" in Wayne County, Missouri.  Much is known of the four bothers, all sons of John W. Moore and Eliza Berry Moore that perpetuated the Moore line so prolifically in Wayne County, Missouri.   Their names were Robert Glenn, Daniel, Lewis Doctor, and William Dudley Moore.   But there is more to the family that should be known.   At least twelve children were born to John and Eliza, but only the stories of the four previously named sons are generally known. ...